Waste Minimisation

Read this story by one of our local community members of his:

13 Week Waste Challenge

My partner and I set ourselves the challenge to throw away only four council bags of non-recyclable rubbish a year. We also wanted to reduce the amount of recycling we were creating, especially plastics. We are amazed how easy it has been and as an added bonus have saved money! We now emit a visible smug cloud whenever we pass by other peoples driveways on rubbish day and were asked to share a few of our tips…

To reduce non-recyclable rubbish we have taken two simple steps:

• We started using a Bokashi composter. This sealed/anaerobic composter essentially pickles waste in a couple of weeks (including meat scraps) producing fantastic compost. Our two composters were skilfully crafted from recycled tahini buckets by Tony Philips of EcoMatters.
• Where possible, we now only purchase products that come in recyclable packaging

To reduce recycling we:

• Purchased a soda stream; from TradeMe of course!
• Switched to using soap/shaving soap/shampoo bars – rather than bottled products
• Started using powered milk
• Started baking more and cooking using basic ingredients; not a hardship!
• Reduced our consumption of take-away meals
• Use a yoghurt maker
• Purchase meat from the butcher (or butchers counter at the supermarket) rather than on Styrofoam trays
• Avoid excess packaging and plastic bags when shopping. We also post photos of the worst examples of unnecessary packaging we see on www.unpackit.org.
• Use reusable containers rather than glad wrap, snap-lock bags, or foil
• Stopped receiving newspapers and junk mail
• Buy in bulk

We rinse any rubbish that has the potential to get nasty and  our last bag was not noticeably smelly after fourteen weeks.

In a Crossfit-esque fashion we invite people to submit a BEFORE and AFTER photo to info@projecttwinstreams.com of their rubbish output, with a suitably motivational caption!

Let’s reduce the burn, whack the sack, and share in a group smug!

Chris